Leave It All To Me
by Sonny at Twilight
Summary: Sequal to About You Now. Now that Carly and Freddie are together, Sam starts feeling a little like a third wheel. Will Sam and Carly's friendship survive this? Read to find out. COMPLETE.
1. Rain Clouds

**Okay, so I decided to go ahead and write the sequal to my story _About You Now_. It was just so fun writing that, and besides, I had a pretty good idea about what I wanted to happen in this story. So, once again, this shouldn't be that long of a story, four chapters, probably at the most. And now for the good old disclaimer. I don't own iCarly, I only own the story idea. Enjoy! **

Chapter One: Rain Clouds

The final school bell rang, releasing the students to freedom until the next day.

Sam walked out of the math room holding her head like she had a massive headache. Instinctively, she ambled over to Carly's locker.

Carly looked up when she saw Sam. "Hey."

Sam leaned against the blue, metal lockers and moaned. "Math should be illegal."

"It should," Carly said nodding. "Did he give you a truckload of homework too?"

"Yes," she said groaning. Sam stood up a little straighter. "So are we still on for movie night, tonight?"

Carly's smile faded quickly to more of an "oops" expression. She laughed nervously. "Uh, yeah, about that…"

"Hi," Freddie said walking up, seeming to be in an extra good mood.

"Freddie's kind of taking me out to dinner tonight…" Carly continued. She flashed Freddie a smile of acknowledgement.

"Didn't you guys go out last night too? To some movie?" Sam asked. She tried to not seem annoyed.

"Yeah, but it was kind of… bad…" Carly said laughing.

"Why?" Sam asked looking at Freddie in an accusing way.

Freddie frowned at the memory. "Someone walking in front of us spilled popcorn and soda all over me. Twice."

Sam started cracking up. "How could they do it twice?"

"Well, after they spilled it on me the first time, they went to get more, and proceeded to do it _again_!" Freddie said.

"It actually wasn't _that_ bad… I mean, up until that point we were having a good time," Carly said mostly to make Freddie feel better.

"So… Why tonight?"

"Sam, I'm so sorry, but I totally forgot about tonight, so when Freddie asked if I wanted to go on another date to make up for last night, I said yes without thinking." Carly put on an apologetic face. She looked at Freddie questioningly.

"Uh, you guys can do your movie night, if you want to. It was already planned out before-" Freddie started to say understandingly before he was cut off.

"Forget it; we'll do it some other time. Go ahead on your second date. I think there's something on TV tonight anyway, so go have fun," Sam said.

"Are you sure?" Carly asked while Freddie took her lime green bag out of her hands and slung it over his shoulder.

"Yup. Have fun." Sam smiled as genuinely as she could. _I'm not losing my best friend. I'm not losing my best friend. I'm not losing my best friend. It's just one cancelled movie night. No big deal. We've been friends forever, and we're not going to stop being friends because of Freddie and her dating. No big deal. No big deal. No big deal. _Sam tried to console herself.

_One week later… _

Sam kicked open the door to her apartment building and walked up to the elevator. She rolled her eyes in annoyance and frustration at the "Out of Order" sign that hung there almost twenty-four/seven. She pounded up the two flights of stairs to the third floor. After unlocking all five of the locks on the dark red front door, Sam walked into the apartment feeling like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh with a raincloud hanging over her head.

Miss Puckett looked up from a flamingo pink hardcover book called "How to Start Caring More about Yourself" and smiled. She uncrossed her twig-like legs and sat up straight on their beat up navy blue couch, patting the space next to her. "Hi, Sammie. How was school?"

Sam ignored the invitation to sit next to her mother and dumped her backpack on the floor next to their dusty TV and floor length mirror. "Hi," she said without an ounce of enthusiasm in her voice.

A little too used to her daughter's tone, Miss Puckett brought her book back up to her face and continued reading. "I didn't get anything for dinner because I thought you said you were having dinner at Carly's tonight."

Sam jerked open the door to their fridge and felt her stomach growl at the sight of bare shelves and nothing else except for a can of Diet Coke. "Nope. Carly's going to one of Freddie's fencing matches tonight, and then she's having dinner with Freddie and his mom. _And_ Spencer has a date with the girl from the video rental place." Sam spun around to look at her mother. "I assumed that there would be something other than a half empty can of Diet Coke in the fridge."

"Sammie, you know I don't go shopping for food unless I think you'll be eating dinner here for more than two nights that week," her mother commented. She turned the page, never taking her eyes off the girly print in her book.

Sam rolled her eyes. "And the mother of the year award goes to… Miss Jolene Puckett!" She pretended to point a microphone at her mom's mouth. "Does CPS know about you?" Sam joked.

Her mom swatted her hand away, almost slicing her with one of her super long fake nails painted Cha-Ching Cherry. "Don't you have homework to do or any other friends who you can eat dinner with?"

Sam responded by leaving for her room and slamming the door in a way that made their landlords mad.

Sam flung herself on her bed belly-up. She glanced over at her desk that had the only framed picture in the house sitting on it. It was a picture of thirteen year olds, Carly and Sam with their arms around each other laughing. Carly had had Freddie take the picture last year and then she framed it and gave it to Sam for Christmas.

Seeing the picture of her and her so called best friend Carly reminded her of the latest ditching she'd gotten from the new couple. It was the third time in two weeks and it was starting to become a problem.

The second time it happened, Sam hadn't even brought up the fact that her and Carly had already had plans that day because she assumed that it wouldn't happen again. And yet, here she was, alone and with an empty stomach on a Thursday night.

Sam knew that it was time to confront Carly about this, but something kept holding her back. Was it the fact that Carly was so happy now that her and Freddie were finally a couple? Was it that Sam didn't like confrontations? What? Don't be ridiculous! This is Sam Puckett we're talking about, remember?

She knew that it was because she just wanted Carly to be happy, even if it did mean a few cancelled dates. Contrary to popular belief, Sam was a good friend with a good heart.

One more cancellation though, and she was either going to talk to Carly about it, or lock Freddie in a closet for the day so she could have at least one day with Carly all to herself. She was leaning towards the second choice, but decided to go with the choice that Carly wouldn't freak out on her over.

_Tomorrow… I'll talk to Carly tomorrow, and everything will go back to normal… Besides, I'm sure Carls isn't meaning to spend _all_ of her time with Freddie. Including the times that I had "reserved." Carly Shay is too nice of a person to intentionally blow someone off for a boy. Especially a computer dork of a boy._

**Okay, there's chapter one. And if you felt a little sorry for Sam in this chapter, get ready to break out the tissues in the later chapters. Okay, it doesn't get _that_ sad, but it should make you feel really sorry for poor Sam, having such an awful mother. Well, now that I've said too much, once again, it's time to sign off. Oh, wait! One more quick thing! Has anyone else ever noticed that during iCarly's season _one_ opening song, when they match up all of the clips with the song, how when it says "some things are made to be" they show a clip of Carly and Freddie together? Just curious if anyone noticed... Okay, enough random rambling for me. Please keep reviewing! I love the feedback! **


	2. Twice

**Hey. Sorry for the slight delay on getting this out. If you're also reading my NBB fanfic, _All's Fair in Love and Game Shows, _then you already know that my delay was because of my latest obsession, the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. Such good books. Plus, I've had a bad case of writer's block for that story and this story, but at least I finally got them both out. Yay. Okay, so, as I usually say, enjoy. **

Chapter Two: Twice

_The next day before school…_

"You were awesome last night. You're like the fencing king," Carly praised Freddie.

"I didn't even do that great," said Freddie. They both sat down on the bench in the hallway, next to the row of lockers.

"Well if that was 'not that great,' then you must be really, _really_ good."

Freddie smiled then tried to look modest. "Well…"

Sam walked through the schools double doors and approached Carly and Freddie. "Hey, people."

"Hi," Carly greeted her.

Freddie studied what was in Sam's hand. "Uh, what is that?" He looked afraid to hear her answer.

"Leftovers from dinner," Sam said nonchalantly.

"But what is it?"

"What? You don't recognize a stick of pepperoni when you see one?" Sam shook the half eaten piece of meat in front of his face.

After being best friends with Sam for so long, Carly immediately picked up on Sam's mood. She turned to Freddie. "Don't you have some club meeting this morning?" She smiled at him while her eyes did the necessary talking, letting him know that no matter what, his answer would be "yes."

Picking up on it a few seconds later than it would take a female to, Freddie nodded, gave Carly a peck on the cheek, and disappeared around the corner. He had never been too good with subtle body language and gentle hints since his mother was so blunt and straightforward about _everything_. But, he was improving, now that he was hanging around Carly so much.

Carly looked up at Sam in time to see her take a snarling bite of her usual comfort food. For some reason, eating a stick of spicy pepperoni was incredibly appealing to Sam when something was bothering her.

Carly gestured to the empty spot next to her on the bench. Sam reluctantly sat down on the padded wood bench and swung her legs back and forth slowly.

"What's wrong?" Carly tried the indirect approach in hopes of her friend taking on her usual abrasive, in-your-face-telling-you-the-truth-whether-it's-easy-to-hear-or-not way. She was starting to miss it.

"What's makes you think something's wrong?" Sam took another bite of the quickly diminishing stick of spicy, red pepperoni and then looked Carly in the eye.

Carly pointed one finger at Sam's dinner leftovers/breakfast and smoothed her silky brown hair down with her other hand. "You always eat pizza toppings when you're upset." Suddenly, Carly's eyes lit up like someone had turned the dimmer switch up brighter behind her eyes. "Wait, that was all you had for dinner, or did you have a whole pizza to go with it?"

Sam lifted the pepperoni slightly in the air and spoke with nonchalance. "Just this. My mom wasn't expecting to have me home for dinner." Sam threw in a tone of subtle guilt.

As much as Sam seemed like she was ready and willing to confront someone at the slightest funny look thrown her way and jump someone who even slightly got on her nerves, if there was one person in the world who she felt bad about having to confront it was Carly. Not to say, of course, that if it was for her own good, Sam wouldn't hesitate. But seeing as how this whole balance-dating-life-with-friendship-life thing was totally new to Carly, and Sam had done the same thing when she was dating Jonah, she decided to also take the indirect approach.

Carly shifted uncomfortably on the bench realizing that the blue padding on the bench did nothing to make it any more comfortable and wished that she had simply stood up to talk to Sam. Then another expression crossed her face, this one full of guilt. "I blew you off for dinner again, didn't I?"

"Yup," Sam said shortly staring down at the odd tile pattern of gray, light green, blue, and red tiles covering the school's halls almost like a mosaic tile pattern.

Carly studied Sam's half hidden face for a few seconds before coming to another conclusion. "I'm spending too much time with just Freddie," she stated. "I'm breaking my promises to you, and I'm not spending enough time with you."

Sam continued staring at the floor. She hated being made into the victim of a situation, even if she really was a victim in a roundabout way.

"I am," Carly stated, with more conviction then before. She scooted herself closer to the edge of the seat and leaned her head down to try and make eye contact with Sam. "C'mon… Say something. Please. Anything. Something accusing, rude, and abrasive… C'mon, I'm dying over here." She cracked a small smile.

Sam turned her head slightly to hide her eye roll. _Great… Just what I needed. She's going to put all the blame on herself, and put herself down so harshly and so many times that it would drive the cruelest of sadistic people crazy. Okay, I'll just have to deny everything. _

"I've been fine," Sam said innocently looking Carly in the eye and using all of her best lying tricks.

Carly rolled her eyes. "Cut the lying garbage, Sam. I know you better than that."

_Dang it! _Sam kept her face composed while she thought of every colorful word she'd ever heard from her mom and said them all, angrily, in her head.

"Look, we need to do something together right away," Carly said, crossing her ankles, delicately.

"You mean…" Sam looked up and down the halls and finally looked back at Carly. "… ditch?"

Carly made a face. "No. I meant tonight… Oh, shoot!"

"Let me guess, you and Freddie have _another_ date tonight, right?"

Carly's eyes lit up. "Nope. You, Freddie, and I have a date tonight, and tomorrow, we're going to hit every girly store in the mall that Freddie hates."

"No, I don't want to be a third wheel," Sam protested, groaning.

"You won't be," Carly assured her. "We were just going to go bowling, and now you can come with us."

Sam looked back down at the floor, trying to figure out the odds of Carly just dropping the subject.

Carly nudged Sam's arm with her pinky finger. "It'll be fun. There'll be food there, and you can kick Freddie's butt at bowling. C'mon, it's all of your favorite things wrapped in one."

Sam finally looked back at her best friend. When she saw the kind but determined I'll-get-her-to-come-with-us-if-I-have-to-drag-her-there look, she sighed loudly. "Fine, I'll come."

"Perfect. You can come home with me again like old times, and then we'll all go together."

"Sure." _What could go wrong?_ Sam couldn't help smiling at Carly's joyful expression.

_Several famous last words later… _

"Freddie, don't worry, they already called your mom," Carly said taking his one good hand in her own.

"Great," he moaned sarcastically. "Just what I need. My mom'll never let me bowl there again."

"Who _would_ want to bowl there after what happened anyway?" Sam asked gruffly, shifting her body around on the crowded bench in the ambulance.

Carly turned to Sam who was squished next to her. "Seriously, who lets an incompetent clown juggle bowling balls anyway?"

Sam chuckled under her breath. "A desperate, idiotic manager."

"I just can't believe he actually hit you," Carly said to her beat up boyfriend.

Freddie held up two fingers. "Twice."

"This kind of stuff can only happen to you, Fredward," Sam said, in a surprisingly nice, joking voice.

"Tell me about it," Freddie said.

"What did you break again?"

"Wrist and leg," Carly responded immediately for him.

The only sound that came after that were the medics talking in low voices about some football game, and the piercing sound of the siren outside while Carly, Sam, and Freddie just waited in silence.

_Well… there goes our day at the mall, tomorrow… _Sam leaned her head against the side of the ambulance and waited for it all to stop.

**And there you have it. I'm not totally sure yet, but I think that this next chapter might be the last chapter for the iCarly story. There may be two chapters, but it depends on how many words it takes to write out what I've got planned. If it's too long, I'll just divide it up into two chapters. Or maybe I won't. I don't know. Anyway, please, please, please review! I seriously need as much encouragement as absolutely possible. Even a simple acknowledgement that you're reading it and you like/hate/love it. Either one. I love the feedback! Keep reading and reviewing! I'll be back! **


	3. Surrendering

**Hey, there! Chapter three is up! Yay! Warning: If you are an emotional person (like me) then you will probably find this chapter sad, and _maybe _a tear-jerker if you're listening to sad music or something. I don't know. I think it's sad. I didn't cry though, probably because I was the one writing it, but still. Consider yourself warned. **

Chapter Three: Surrendering 

It had been three weeks since the bowling incident. Since some clown decided to juggle three bowling balls, and ended up nailing poor Freddie Benson in the leg and wrist. The third ball gave the clown a necessary wakeup call by coming down on his own foot.

And as for Carly's plan to bring her and Sam closer together again as friends… that was self-consciously put on hold because suddenly Freddie was practically a walking disaster without someone to help him. And who better to do that than his girlfriend?

Once again Sam was put back into the same position, only now it was even worse. She had a choice of being alone after school and on weekends, or spending time with Carly _and_ Freddie, the new inescapable package deal.

Sam, being dead set against being a third wheel and having to spend _all _of her free time with Freddie, resigned herself to being a loner everywhere outside of school.

However, Sam was in for the shock of her life when she came home from school one day.

It was a Friday afternoon, and Sam was about ready to puke after seeing all of Freddie and Carly's PDA. Not only that but she was tired, hungry, and irritable.

_The next person who asks 'what's wrong' is getting kicked in the leg. _Sam slammed the front door of their apartment building open and headed for the staircase.

"Hold it!" their landlord called out, stepping out of the utilities closet.

Sam ground her teeth together and slowly turned around. "What?" she asked of her landlord, Riley Lindsey.

"Where do you think you're going?" He crossed his arms gruffly over his worn flannel shirt.

"I _live _here, Riley. _Remember_?" Sam growled, not in the mood for games.

"Your mom didn't give you the heads up?"

"_What _'heads up?'"

"We're fumigating your floor, and you're all being evacuated for the weekend." He reached behind him and into the closet and pulled out a crumpled piece of lavender stationary and a black duffel bag. "Here's your stuff."

No longer able to display any emotions, she reached for the bag that she recognized as her own and the note.

The note read:

_**Sam, **_

_**I'm sorry I forgot to tell you we were being evacuated. Whoops. Listen, I just finished the last chapter in my book (How to Start Caring More About Yourself), and it told me that as a reward, I should do something for myself. So, I decided to take a mini weekend vacation to Vegas with some friends. Yay! Again, sorry that I forgot to give you a little heads up about this. But don't worry, I left everything you'll need with Riley, and all of our furniture is in storage and safe from fumes. I know you and Carly are still pretty close, so you can stay with her and Spencer while I'm gone. I'm sure they'll be happy to have you. **_

_**See you on Monday, **_

_**Mom**_

Sam stiffly folded the note up and stuffed it into her pocket. She didn't even know what to do.

Was Carly even home? Would Carly and Spencer still be okay with her sleeping over? It wasn't like Sam and Carly were on the outs with each other but still… Sam hadn't been over for what felt like months. But besides that, what was up with her mom just taking off all of the sudden? Sure, she had done some pretty bad things as a mother, but she had never done this.

_Stupid book! I always did hate books! _

Riley just stood there staring at her like he expected her to cry or something. "Something wrong, kid?"

Sam looked up at him, shook her head, and walked robotically to the door and started towards Carly's apartment. She didn't even care that she was breaking her promise to kick the next person who asked her that. The anger was gone, and a new emotion was taking its place.

She walked down the street with a face that made people want to help her and cringe away from her at the same time. And for that, Sam was glad.

Sam hated _ever_ showing anyone that she was vulnerable. If she did, she would just end up getting hurt and stepped on. And Sam would never let that happen again.

She wasn't surprised when it suddenly started pouring rain. It _was_ Washington for crying out loud. But the only thing it reminded her of was exactly what she wasn't allowed to do. Ever.

When she reached Carly and Freddie's apartment building, she walked through the door slowly, and didn't even flinch when Lewbert yelled at her for tracking a little bit of dirt into _his _lobby.

Spencer answered the door when she knocked. "Hey, Sam. You know, Carly's not here, but-"

"I know. I was just wondering if it was okay if I stayed here for awhile while our apartment's being fumigated and junk." Sam spoke with tough casualness.

"You bet. You can crash in Carly's room like usual. You want some spaghetti tacos, or something? I was going to wait and make them closer to when Carly came home but I could start 'em now if you want."

Sam shook her head. "That's okay, Spence. I can wait. I'll just go drop this all in Carly's room."

"Okee-dokee. I'll be working on a sculpture in my room if you need me." Spencer started walking towards his room.

"Don't you usually work on those out here?"

"Yeah, but… it's kind of too big to be out here…" Spencer said, almost guiltily.

"What is it?" Sam tried to sound genuinely interested.

"A surprise!" And with that, Spencer turned and ran to his room.

"Okay, then," Sam said under her breath.

She ran up the stairs and immediately dumped her belongings on the floor and closed the door and locked it. Sam leaned against the back of the door and tried to control her emotions.

Her emotions eventually won the battle and she hid her face in her hands, sliding down to the floor with her knees brought up to her chest. She dug her fingernails into the soft carpet, trying to will the moisture in her eyes to go away.

Sam caught a glimpse of her mother's note during another struggle with her feelings, and that was the end of her tough charade.

Tears streamed down her face with no sign of stopping. They were all of the tears that she had always wanted to cry, but had never been released.

She cried for all of the times she'd liked a boy and would try to talk to him but they would just run away or flat out reject her, and then she would hide it from Carly, Freddie, and the world. For the hundreds of times her mom had done something without thinking or caring about Sam. And most of all, because the little voice in her head that kept telling her Carly and her were no longer friends wouldn't shut up.

Rain slanted down onto Carly's bedroom window with great force. Sam's tears had the same speed.

She wrapped her arms around her legs and slowly rocked back and forth, biting her lip, hard, trying to get a grip on herself.

The little voice in her head gave her a verbal slap by saying Carly no longer needed a best friend now that she had Freddie. She would never need Sam ever again. Her cheek burned as if she'd truly been slapped.

Sam choked out another sob, completely disgusted by her own tears. She wanted to do something to make that voice shut up once and for all. But she couldn't. She couldn't do anything to a voice that was only in her head.

Shaking from her sobs, Sam pulled herself up to a standing position.

She caught sight of herself in a white-framed mirror and covered her eyes with already-wet hands. The reflection showed someone with a red, splotchy face and leaking eyes. It was Sam, looking horribly vulnerable, weak, and pitifully hopeless.

Her rough demeanor had pushed everyone but Carly away. Without Carly… she was alone in the world, in her head, and in her heart. Her heart that now had one more hole stabbed in it.

One of her strongest feelings was to hit something or throw something, but everything around her was precious… delicate… breakable… and Carly's.

Sam yanked her hands away from her face, suddenly hating her own existence. She hated feeling like nothing but a burden and an afterthought to everyone around her.

That's all she was too. Her mother's burden and Carly's afterthought. And the thorn in Freddie's side. No one needed her. No one wanted her. She was just getting in the way.

_No one else should have to suffer but me. _

Sam stumbled across the room on weak, shaky knees until she came to Carly's giant, glass window.

With one last stomach wrenching sob, she opened the window with all of the strength she had left, and completely surrendered.

***sniffles* Okay... that was chapter three. Don't start crying though (bad joke), because after writing this chapter I realized this story actually probably has two chapters left to it. Yay! And as for the ending note of Chapter Three: Surrendering... I'll let you figure out what you think happened at the very end. _I _am going to be good, and not reveal anything until Chapter Four comes out. Or maybe Chapter Five. I don't know. Keep reading and reviewing! And thanks for reading! Bye! **


	4. Protector Type Person

**Hey, so sorry for the delay and the suspense. Hope none of you died from suspense or impatience. Anyway, this is the last chapter for this story. Yay! I had writer's block for this for the longest time. But I finally finished it! Okay, so enjoy! **

Chapter Four: Protector Type Person

With one last stomach wrenching sob, she opened the window with all of the strength she had left, and completely surrendered. With the tough image Sam portrayed, she couldn't afford to cry, and therefore she never did this. She flipped through the ten pictures of her and her dad that she always carried around in a Ziploc baggie in her pocket, just for the comfort. Sam never looked at them, but that night, she needed to. I mean, what else was she going to do?

There had been rumors several years ago back before Sam met Carly, that her father had left her and her mother. That was a complete load of garbage though. He hadn't left. He'd been in a car accident and passed away. And of course, those kids knew that, but, they were the bullies of the school, and back then Sam was the #1 target. She was a little on the short side, wasn't very strong in the least, and she didn't really talk much. Or fight back.

One of the only helpful things that Sam's mother had ever done in her life was yank her out of that school and stick her in the elementary school she had met Carly at.

After being a target for a year and a half, Sam changed her look, worked out, and got tougher. Goodbye roll-over-and-take-it Sam, hello get-out-of-my-way-or-else Sam.

Not all of her memories were bad. After she met Carly, her life got considerably better. And (_never _tell anyone this) even though she hated admitting it, Sam actually didn't mind having Freddie around.

Thinking about all of the good times made her choppy breathing and sobs start to subside. She leaned against the side of the red brick building on Carly's fire escape.

The next turn down memory lane took her back to the day Carly and Sam first met Freddie.

It had been a typical Saturday afternoon about three or four years back. Carly and Sam were watching TV. Well, Carly was watching, Sam was raiding the fridge for lunch.

"Do you got any meat in here?" Sam asked. Her voice was slightly muffled from her head being in the cabinets.

"Sam, I thought you already ate," Carly commented, laughing.

"No, that was brunch, Carls." Sam opened the fridge and started searching the shelves.

"I think there's some salami in there somewhere."

Five minutes later, Sam and Carly were both sitting on the couch watching some television show, when someone knocked on their front door.

"I'll get it," Carly slid off the couch while she spoke. She opened the door revealing an overprotective mother with her hand on the shoulder of her embarrassed son. "Hi."

"Hello. My name is Marissa Benson and this is my son, Fredward Benson," said Marissa.

Sam stood up and stood by Carly's side. She raised an eyebrow at Freddie. "Fred_weird_?"

Freddie frowned and looked at his mother. "It's Freddie."

"It's Fredward," Mrs. Benson corrected. "We just moved into the apartment next door and thought we'd say hello."

Carly smiled and waved at them. "Hi. I'm Carly Shay, and this is my best friend, Sam Puckett. I live with my older brother, Spencer. He's inside working on a sculpture."

Marissa's forehead creased with worry. "A sculpture?"

"That's cool," Freddie piped up quickly, suddenly extremely interested in Carly.

"Yeah, Spencer's an artist."

"Best artist in Seattle," Sam added.

"And you're not worried he could hurt himself? Working with all of those sharp tools?" asked Mrs. Benson with great motherly concern.

Freddie groaned and covered his face with his hands. "Mom…"

Carly smiled and shook her head. "Well, sometimes he gets hurt and catches random things on fire, but he's really just working on gluing a giant house of cards together and…" Carly trailed off because Marissa had already pushed her way through the front door to find Spencer.

"Wow… that woman is all kinds of crazy," Sam said to Carly with Freddie still standing there.

"Hey, she's not that bad," complained Freddie.

"Yeah, I don't care, Fredweird," Sam said, reclaiming her spot on the couch.

"Sorry about my friend… _Freddie_," Carly said.

Freddie suddenly looked like a lovesick puppy as soon as Carly started talking to him. "Not a problem. I don't care."

Sam laughed, looking back at that memory. To think that that was where it had all started for them.

Love at first sight for Freddie, Carly nice as can be, Mrs. Benson trying to prevent Spencer from "hurting himself," and Sam was just… Sam.

Sam's tear ducts were starting to run empty, so she thought about all of the other great memories they had.

The first time they did iCarly, when Carly and Sam spied on Freddie on his first date with Valerie, hatching the baby chicks for science, getting back at Nevel on three different occasions. The list went on and on, playing through Sam's head like those end-of-year slideshows schools put together and showed on the last day of school.

Sam stood up straighter and began the process of wringing out her sopping wet hair. The rain had finally let up and Sam was completely soaked.

"Knock, knock," Carly said, suddenly appearing in the window.

Sam turned around and couldn't help smiling a little. "Hey…"

"Did I forget something else?" Carly asked, climbing through the window and standing next to Sam.

"Nah, my mom just decided to take off to Vegas for the weekend and leave me here," Sam said as though it didn't matter to her at all.

"Did she even tell you?" Carly looked concerned.

"Not really, but I don't care."

Carly shook her head. "Then why are your eyes all red? It looks like someone poured salt into them."

"Uh, nothing, just…"Sam sighed. She sat on the fire escape step with defeat. "You know what? Forget that. I do care. She didn't tell me they were fumigating our whole apartment floor, so she left my stuff with our landlord and left me a note saying she was just taking off to Vegas. And… that… felt… bad."

Carly used all of her strength to not let her mouth drop to the floor in shock. Sam never let herself be this open and vulnerable. Carly opened her mouth to speak, but Sam wasn't done being unpredictable.

"And another thing is bugging me too." Sam looked Carly in the eye. "I don't want you to feel like you have to be my friend just because you feel sorry for me. I know I don't have any friends other than you and Freddie because I'm so… mean to everyone, and I'd be okay with it if you didn't want to be friends anymore now that you have Freddie."

Carly frowned at Sam. "Okay, I've got a couple of things to say. First, where is all of this sensitivity coming from?"

Sam laughed without humor. "Reminiscing does that to a person, I guess." She looked down and studied her shoes, trying to think of how to say her next thought. "I don't want to be mean to everyone anymore." She spoke slowly, but she there wasn't a hint of a lie in her tone.

Carly smiled. "If you ask my opinion, it won't be that hard."

Sam looked up at Carly like she was insane. "Huh?"

"Well, it might be kind of hard, but all you have to do is treat people the same way you treat me," Carly stated simply. "And another thing. Just because now Freddie and I are dating, doesn't mean I don't still need you as my best friend."

"But why? _Why_ would you want to have me as a friend?"

"Because I know that deep down, you have a kind heart, and that you're a good friend. Besides, who else am I supposed to go to Build-a-Bra with? Freddie? Ugh…" Carly shuddered.

Sam laughed. "So even though I'm mean to virtually everyone but you, you still think I have a heart?"

"People without hearts don't stick by their friends like you've done for me and even for Freddie. And okay… you could ease up a little on the intimidation factor on everyone else, but other than that…" Carly shrugged. "We've been friends for so long and… Did you ever think that maybe we were supposed to be friends? I mean, you used to be way more overbearing, and now it's been months since you've beaten someone up on purpose. And me. I used to never be able to tell the difference between people who actually needed help or something and people who were just using me. And then after you told me what was really going on, you'd let me cry and then go kick their butts for me. And now I can smell phonies a mile away too."

Sam smiled a little. No one messed with _her_ friends. "Yeah, but-"

"And okay. The rest of the world _would _appreciate a nicer Sam. But if you think for even a second that I would ever not want you as my friend then you're insane. Same goes for Freddie." Carly smiled. "And I already know that you had rough past, and you weren't just born a bully. But people can change," she said lightheartedly. "Look at it this way; you know now what you don't want to be. You've been the victim before. You're too strong to go back down that road."

They both laughed.

"You've been the bully. You know you don't want to go back to that, and you'll have Freddie and me there to help you. Freddie can always fence you're aggression out of you."

"Thanks… I still don't get one thing though."

"What's that?"

"How did you sense the good in me all those years ago?"

Carly playfully kicked Sam. "I wasn't _totally_ clueless back then. Besides, you didn't beat me up for shoving you off the bench after you tried to steal my sandwich. I figured there had to be more to you than just a sandwich-stealing bully."

"Thanks."

"Aww…" Carly held her arms open for a hug.

Sam hesitated for a split second before she stood up and walked into Carly's embrace.

"And another thing… I'm going to have to _insist _that we go shopping this weekend no matter if Freddie breaks something else or not," Carly said after they pulled away.

"Guess we'll both just have to keep him away from juggling clowns and jerky bullies at school," Sam said only half-joking.

"Hey, that can be your new thing," Carly said lighting up with an idea.

"What?"

"You can be a protector. You know, for the underdogs that get bullied."

Sam looked unsure. "I don't know… _Me _as a protector type person…?"

"Why not? You've got the bravery for it. And you won't be afraid to stand up to the bullies like other people are."

"I can still eat the same though, right?" Sam asked while Carly climbed back through the window.

"Yes," Carly said smiling and rolling her eyes.

"Okay, good. You know me… I can't live without my meat."

"Yep… I know…"

Sam smiled and stepped through the open window. This wasn't the end of her life and happiness like she thought it was. It was just the beginning.

_The End. _

**And there was the end. Don't you just love happy endings. I tried to make the ending believable enough, so... let me know what you think. Please review, and if you like _Sonny With a Chance _or _The Naked Brothers Band_ check out some of my other stories. I have two stories in progress and now three stories finished. Yay! Thanks for reading and for all of your support! Bye!**


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